updat julius. julius is still hanging in there. this is a before picture. he may have had a reaction to russian literature. that was the culprit the family posed for my g-ma rose's sister, who hung herself in the attic: too much dusty. later i hear she was desperate to escape a forced marriage. it could have been both. rose told me she used to take intellectual books on the bus, but the cover concealed her pulp novels. i doubt if julius read lenin it would it make him ill. it's probably just a coincidence. he did lose a lot of weight, but he was rather fat. you can say that of a cat. that happened with mister too when he had the rope removed, he emerged with seam stitched and svelte.